Earning Fast Track to Hong Kong, Rover Parking Named Top Startup by Infinti

Infiniti Lab Toronto announced the top startup from its inaugural demo day this week.

The smart cities pre-accelerator program graduated its first-ever North America cohort and Toronto’s Rover Parking finished ahead of the pack.

Rover, an app-based marketplace for shared parking, beat out seven peers in a pitch competition.

“Rover Parking came out on top because of the potential they have to use IoT to change our cities, and the impact we believe they can have as part of the Hong Kong program,” said Dane Fisher, General Manager of Global Business Transformation for Infinti Motors.

A panel of judges—including Infiniti Canada’s Stephen Lester and Omers Ventures’ Brian Kobus—ultimately selected Rover to move on to Infiniti’s Hong Kong accelerator, which is slated to begin this fall.

“We chose Toronto as the first North American launch of Infiniti Lab because of its role as an IoT hub, and now we’re excited to see what the companies in our Toronto program can do on the global stage,” added Fisher.

Toronto Mayor John Tory joined the evening event as part of a panel discussion about the importance of IoT and smart city technology for cities like Toronto.

“Toronto has increasingly become a key player on the global technology stage,”said Tory. “The startups participating in the Infiniti Lab program have real-world potential to change the way Torontonians interact with their cities.”